Cures and Dark Times
by TreeOfLife1997
Summary: With Katie finally awake, things are finally looking up for Jake... But nothing lasts forever. With the hope of a potential cure on the horizon and those becoming infected on the decrease, the future has never looked brighter. Outside the cordon, the truth is out and much needed aid is on its way... So why does it feel like with every one step forward, they take two steps back?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Containment.

Chapter One:

)o(

 **Death is not the greatest loss in life**. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.

\- Norman Cousins.

)o(

Jake walked through the cry streets, attempting to track down his fellow officers. He needed to restore some type of order to the cordon. The death toll was still rising, as more and more people died from the virus every day, but thru virus wasn't the only thing killing the citizens within the cordon and the thugs who had chased him and Quentin had only reminded him of that fact.

But so far his search had been fruitless. He'd tracked down four officers so far and all of them had been dead. Three had been killed by the virus and the fourth had been shot, execution style. He had already known seen how dangerous it was to be a cop within the cordon… The day Katie had become infected, the look on that man's face when he'd been Jake in his bulletproof vest had been murderous… But he hadn't expected a fellow officer to be gunned down in such a way.

Glancing at his watch, Jake turned and began to make his way back towards the hospital. He couldn't afford to be caught outside after dark again. Deciding it would be safer to cut through the park rather than walk back down the streets he'd only just come up, Jake was greeted by the sight of bodies piled high and areas of ground burnt black from where previous piles had already been burnt.

There were hundreds of bodies here.

Jake stopped for a moment and simply looked round. So many people were dead… Jake knew people were dying and he'd seen bodies scattered along the streets and he burnt the bodies of the dead every night… But seeing so many dead bodies in one place, it made Jake truly understand the horror of the situation.

How many people were dead?

How many of the surrounding buildings had rooms filled with the dead that nobody knew about?

How many people were there left?

How many people were currently dead, due to the fact Jake and his fellow officers had failed to do their duty at the food drop?

It'd be the children who died of hunger first, their bodies wouldn't be as strong as an adults. Jake shut his eyes, but the bodies of the children who had died still burned in his mind, they'd been so skinny. Opening his eyes, Jake looked away from the piles of bodies and carried on walking. It didn't take him long to get back to the hospital.

"Doctor Cannerts?" Jake called walking through the corridors of the hospital. "Doctor Cannerts?"

Jake turned down another corridor and caught sight of Trey standing outside a room, watching what was going on within closely.

"Trey," Jake called. "Have you seen Doctor Cannerts?"

Trey didn't answer as Jake continued walking down the corridor towards Trey.

"Trey?" Jake questioned as he drew level with Trey.

Again he got not answer, so he turned and looked towards what Trey was watching. Doctor Cannerts was in the room, drawing blood from Thomas.

"Hey," Jake said stepping into the room. "What's going on?"

"He's fixing Cinco," Trey answered, grabbing hold of Jakes arm and stopping him from interrupting Doctor Cannerts work.

"Doctor Cannerts," Jake said, shaking off Trey's hold. "What are you doing?"

"I'm drawing the antiserum from Thomas's blood, mixing it with interferon and introducing it into Cinco's bloodstream in real time," Doctor Cannerts explained as a nurse entered the room and collected a vial and walking into the adjacent room where Cinco was being treated. "The combination creates a drug cocktail that could save him."

"Thomas, you're okay?" Jake asked, turning his attention to Quentin's classmate.

"I'm okay," Thomas answered weakly.

"Shut it down," Jake demanded.

"No!" Trey snapped.

"He's hurting the kid," Jake glared at Trey before turning to Doctor Cannerts. "You're hurting him."

"I don't care," Trey cut in. "My brother needs it."

"I'm monitoring the boy closely," Doctor Cannerts tried to reassure Jake. "Once I mix the next vial, we've got what we need. Thomas is doing great. He's really helping. Last vial, that's it."

"Hang in there, Thomas," Jake turned back to Thomas.

"This is what superheroes do, right?" Thomas tried to smile, only to wince in pain.

"That's right, buddy," Jake tried to smile at Thomas.

)o(

"What happened while I was gone today?" Jake asked, as he sat down beside Katie's bed.

"One of Doctor Cannerts team was infected," Katie answered, turning her head to the side to look at Jake. "Cinco tried to stop them and he got bitten."

"Bitten?" Jake repeated, unsure whether he'd heard what Katie said correctly.

Katie nodded, "Yes. They attacked him and bit him."

"What happened to them?" Jake asked.

"Trey shot them." Katie answered.

Jake sighed and shut his eyes for a moment and rubbed his temples. Doctor Cannerts had lost another member of his team. That was one less person working on a cure. They were running out of time and people… Soon there wouldn't be much of a population left to save.

"How was your day?" Katie asked after a moment. "Did you find them?"

Jake glanced at her and shook his head, "The ones I found were dead… It seems officers of the law aren't too well liked."

Jake saw the look which flashed across Katie's face and he quickly reached out and caught hold of her hand.

"I'll always come back to you, I promise," Jake said seriously.

Katie nodded, "Just… Be careful."

Jake smiled, "I will."

"Good," Katie said before yawning.

Jake squeezed her hand and got to his feet. Katie squeezed back and smiled up at him.

"Say hello to Thomas for him," Katie ordered.

"I will," Jake promised.

The door to the room behind them opened and Quentin entered.

"Hey, buddy," Jake greeted him and Katie smiled at him as he climbed into the seat beside Katie's bed.

"Hey," Quentin replied.

"Right, I've gotta go," Jake said. "I'll be back later."

Quentin nodded and Katie smiled at him.

"I might be asleep by then," Katie warned him.

"I'll still be back later," Jake promised her.

"I love you, Jake Riley," Katie smiled.

"I love you, too," Jake answered.

"Ewww," Quentin muttered and Jake laughed.

)o(

Jake poured the ashes of the last body into a jar, before placing it on top an envelope containing the person's personal belongings and placing it on the floor in the far corner of the furnace room. He took a step back and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. There was no doubt in the back of his mind that he'd be burning more bodies the following night, but it hadn't escaped his notice that the amount of bodies being bought in, was decreasing.

Had the virus killed that many? Had so many died that it wasn't jumping from person to person as quickly, because there were so few people left? Jake shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to stop thinking about that. Right now he had to do as much as he could to help save those who remained within the cordon's walls.

He turned and his foot bumped into a jar, almost knocking it over. He cursed. He'd have to talk to someone about using a storage room to store the ashes of the victims of the virus in, because he was quickly running out of space in the furnace room. The walls and floor were lined with boxes, jars and bottles, all containing the ashes of the dead. And alongside them were the plastic wallets, envelopes and plastic bags containing their belongings.

He quickly turned and left the room and as he walked down the hallway he couldn't help but think of how many of those he had burned could still be alive if the situation had been handled differently. The virus had been created by a fellow American citizen, it had been funded by those in charge. How many people could still be alive if they had simply handed the information they had on the virus over to Doctor Cannerts? How many days of research on rats could they have saved, to know what they knew about the virus now? How much closer would they be to a cure?

But they had destroyed all the files.

Meese had burned them all.

Not to mention, those who created the virus must have known what they now knew. How many people could still be alive f they had simply quarantined people for forth-eight hours before they were allowed to leave the cordon, because if they could get Thomas out, they must have been able to get other people out too, rather than leaving them trapped in the cordon to die.

Jake turned down a corridor and headed towards Thomas's room. When he got there he found Doctor Cannerts watching Thomas sleep through the observation window. Doctor Cannerts glanced at Jake as he heard him approach, before turning his attention back to Thomas.

"How is he?" Jake asked, stopping beside Doctor Cannerts.

"He's resting," Doctor Cannerts answered. "He's fine."

"Risking a kid's life to save a thug…" Jake muttered, with a slight shake of his head.

Suddenly the sound of a monitor beeping sounded through the air and Jake turned his attention to the room Cinco was in.

"Doc, what's going on?" Trey appeared in the doorway to Cinco's room.

"He's crashing!" Doctor Cannerts exclaimed.

"Get in there and fix it!" Trey demanded, reaching for his gun. "Get the kid, Doc!"

"No!" Jake quickly cut in. "No more Thomas!"

Trey drew his gun and pointed it at Jake, "Get the kid!"

"It's too late for that!" Doctor Cannerts tried to defuse the situation. "I'll try more Interferon."

"Hang on there, Cinco!" Trey pleased. "Cinco!"

"He's not responding," Doctor Cannerts explained, as a nurse hurried into the room and began working on Cinco alongside Doctor Cannerts.

But nothing they did could save him and the heart monitor went silent, Jake watched as Trey fell to his knees beside Cinco's bed and his gun dropped from his hand and tears streamed down his face.

"Cinco!" Trey cried. "Please, no! Cinco, brother, please!"

)o(

 **Hey, I hope you enjoyed the start of this story. Until next time,**

 **Blessed be,**

 **TreeOfLife1997.**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Containment.

Chapter Two:

)o(

Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. **All we can do is learn to swim**.

-Vicki Harrison.

)o(

Jake stared at the three bodies waiting to be burned as he entered the furnace room. One of the he recognised as Trey's brother, Cinco. He sighed and moved forward. He couldn't imagine what Trey was feeling right now. He'd lost his kid brother. Jake could remember the heart break he'd felt when Katie had become infected and the complete and utter devastation he'd felt when he thought she'd died…

And that's when he noticed there was something different about Cinco's body. Taking q closer look, Jake noticed the tell-tale signs of the virus were missing… It was almost like he hadn't died from the virus. Jake quickly hurried from the furnace room and through the hospital to where Doctor Cannerts office was.

"I'm gonna make you suffer," Trey was holding a gun to Doctors Cannerts as Jake arrived at the office.

"Break it up! Stop!" Jake yelled approaching them. "Stop! Stop!"

"Let me go," Trey yelled as Jake grabbed him and disarmed him of him gun. "Get off me. Get off me!"

"Stop!" Jake ordered. "I need you to stop!"

"Get off me!" Trey yelled again.

"Stop!" Jake exclaimed. "I lost people, too, okay? And I'm angry. But it's a question for both of us, man. What are we gonna do with that anger?"

"I don't know," Trey answered, slightly calmer than before. "But I got to do something."

"Think," Jake said. "Don't kill the one guy who could get us out of this mess."

Trey nodded before walking away and Jake turned to Doctor Cannerts.

"I'm lucky you came by," He said.

"I've looked at a lot of bodies," Jake nodded. "Too many. And they, they all look the same... Red, bloodshot eyes. It's like at the end, they cried blood."

"Yes, orbital haemorrhaging," Doctor Cannerts explained. "An unfortunate and dramatic late-stage manifestation."

"Yeah, well, Cinco didn't have that," Jake answered. "And his, his nose and his mouth were clean, too. He looked different."

"I assumed he'd bleed out posthumously," Doctor Cannerts stared at Jake. "That's not uncommon. You're saying he didn't? Were his clothes wet?"

"Yeah, soaked," Jake replied. "Like he dove in a pool… All right, I know it means something, but what?"

"It means Cinco didn't die from the virus," Doctor Cannerts informed him. "He's exhibiting the classic traits of a Cytokine storm. He died from my treatment. He outlived the virus. If we can tweak the right cocktail for the treatment, we could be on the road to a cure."

Doctor Cannerts opened the door to his office and waved Jake to follow him in. He walked over to his desk and pulled up the latest project he'd been working on.

"This test should tell us the exact mixture of interferon to go with Thomas' blood profile," Doctor Cannerts explained. "With the proper proportions, we may be able to extend life for those who have the virus exponentially longer."

"That's good, right?" Jake asked.

"Only one problem," Doctor Cannerts answered.

"There's only one Thomas," Jake said.

"Exactly," Doctor Cannerts agreed. "And at the rate we need to draw blood, we'd end up killing the boy. We'd still never get ahead of the virus."

"Could there be another source?" Jake questioned. "Anyone in the Cordon?"

"The odds. Based on these types of antibodies..." Doctor Cannerts sighed. "About one in a thousand."

"Still, out of all the people in the Cordon, that's, that's four possible candidates," Jake said.

"Well, then we'd have to test them all and hope that we find a match," Doctor Cannerts pointed out.

"Then we test them all," Jake said.

)o(

"Any success in rounding up donors?" Doctor Cannerts asked, as Jake returned from his walk around the cordon.

"The people are scared," Jake answered. "Scared of the virus. Scared of each other. I'm not the right person for this. Any of this."

"You're a good police officer, Jake," Doctor Cannerts disagreed.

Jake scoffed.

"The fact that you're here, that you stayed behind," Doctor Cannerts carried on. "Speaks volumes about your character."

"Kate always gives me a hard time when I think about giving up," Jake said. "She always sees me as... More of hero than I see myself."

"She has a way of seeing the good in people," Doctor Cannerts agrees.

"Yeah, she does," Jake smiled. "I have an idea."

Jake raced off through the hospital to one of the storage room, where he seen an old CD player and he quickly set to work.

"Ann Scott. Jeff Joseph. Oscar Welch. Carl Pierson. Ashley Bowen. Timothy Hall. What's this about? George Owens. Katie Charles. These names," Jake played the recording he'd made earlier in the centre of the cordon. "These were fathers, mothers. Sons, daughters. These are the names of the people we loved. And lost. The list and, and the pain goes on and on… But what can we do to keep the list from growing?"

Jake watched as people stopped to listen.

"There may be one thing, and I'm, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It's a long shot, but it's a shot. I know what I'm asking here goes against everything we've been told. And we've heard it all: Stay inside. Keep four to six feet apart. We've had it drilled into us. But I'm asking everyone, please, gather as many people as you can and come back here at three p.m. to be tested for a possible antibody. This could lead to a cure. The hope may lie in one of us. Which means it lies in all of us."

Jake just hopped it had been enough.

)o(

"Uh, maybe people are still on their way," Jake said, as Doctor Cannerts and his team waited.

"Come on," Doctor Cannerts said. "It was always gonna be a big ask."

Out the corner of his eye, Jake saw Trey and his gang approaching.

"Let me handle this," Jake said before walking over to meet them. "What do you want?"

"Check my blood," Trey said, rolling up one sleeve and holding out his arm. "Maybe I can help."

"I'll take him over to this side," One of Doctor Cannerts team approached them.

And it was like Trey had opened the flood gates as more people began to approach them from the surrounding streets.

"Just press your finger," One of Doctor Cannerts team was explaining to a young child. "See? Just a pinprick. Okay?"

"Don't worry. This won't hurt," Another was saying. "Thank you, sir."

"Dr Cannerts? Dr Cannerts?" One of Doctor Cannerts team came running up to him. "Take a look at this?"

"Whose is this?" Doctor Cannerts asked upon seeing the test.

"That guy in the white," They answered.

"You! You there!" Doctor Cannerts called. "Stop that man. But don't touch him!"

Jake run after the man Doctor Cannerts was pointing at.

"Hey!" Jake yelled.

The man turned round and Jake saw he was a priest.

"Hey, Father?"

"Yes?" The man answered.

'Your blood, you have the antibody," Jake said. "We found you."

"The Lord has found me," The priest answered with a smile.

)o(

 _The neighbourhood where I grew up, nothing much changed. People rarely left, rarely got rich, never got out of their lot in life. The person you were born as was the person you died as. This sickness... this virus and this wall we built to stop it... has changed people. It makes all of us see things differently. Some people have caved under the pressure. The difficulties they faced only brought out the worst in them._

 _Other people have risen up, and surprised even themselves. Will you? New, and sometimes unlikely, alliances have formed. In the search for truth, some found not only answers, but redemption. The very concept of what it means to be a family has been reshaped. Sometimes for the better._

 _And then there are those who felt they needed to choose between their heart and their duty. And in the end, found a way to choose both. This Cordon has changed me. The one thing I never thought I'd find in all this sadness and sickness and death is love. And I'm going to try and honour that. And be one of the people who rises up. I love you, Katie…_

)o(

 **Hey, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time,**

 **Blessed be,**

 **TreeOfLife1997.**


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